Outside the Beltway

As Washington heads into the final days of a budget shutdown, Republicans find themselves on the losing end of a public relations battle.

Senator Mitch McConnell and others are blocking a criminal justice reform bill currently pending in the Senate.

This month’s budget fight is likely the last chance the President will have to get any funding for his border wall.

In the end, the race between Cindy Hyde-Smith and Mike Espy was not even close.

Senator Jeff Flake is threatening to vote against President Trump’s judicial nominees unless he gets a floor vote on a bill to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

It would be a rather quixotic effort, but Jeff Flake isn’t ruling out challenging the President for the Republican nomination in 2020.

On Tuesday, Michigan joined the ranks of the states where marijuana is legal and several other states legalized it for medical purposes.

With most forecasts assuming that Republicans will at least lose control of the House, the odds are that the GOP will react to that by moving further to the right.

In the wake of attempted bombing attacks on people he has criticized, the President is blaming the media for poisonous political rhetoric. He needs to look in the mirror.

More explosive devices sent to prominent Trump critics, including Robert DeNiro and Joe Biden, have been located.

Nearly two years into Republican control of Washington, the budget deficit is headed back up.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley says he would not consider a Supreme Court nominee in 2020. But does he really mean it?

With four weeks to go until Election Day, Donald Trump and the Republicans are continuing to stoke the divisions laid bare by the Kavanaugh nomination.

The Merrick Garland precedent is power politics, nothing more.

Open mouth, insert foot. Chuck Grassley didn’t exactly help his party when he was asked to explain the lack of Republican women on the Judiciary Committee.

One last Kavanaugh Cold Open.

After a long and contentious battle, Brett Kavanaugh has been confirmed to become the 114th Supreme Court Justice.

The Senate voted to proceed to an expected floor vote on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court tomorrow, but the final outcome is still uncertain.

As the Senate prepares for a key procedural vote on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh this morning, the Judge’s fate remains up in the air. However, signs are pointing to reasons for Republican optimism.

The F.B.I.’s updated background check is complete and will be reviewed by Senators beginning today. As a result, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is moving forward toward a final vote on the Kavanaugh nomination later this week.

The GOP has no alternative but to push forward with the Kavanaugh nomination, because they don’t have a viable alternative at this point.

After placing limits on the scope of the F.B.I.’s reopened background investigation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, the White House has relented and is allowing a more open-ended investigation.

Surprise developments yesterday led to a pause in the confirmation process for Brett Kavanaugh. Where it goes from here is unclear.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the floor, but a last minute maneuver could delay a final vote pending an F.B.I. investigation.

Republicans intend to “plow through” on the Kavanaugh nomination even after yesterday’s hearing, but it’s not clear that they have the votes to confirm him.

After eight hours of testimony, the only impression a non-partisan mind could be left with from the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh is that we need a full investigation of the charges against the Supreme Court nominee. Unfortunately, we’re not going to get that.

Republicans have set a Judiciary Committee vote for less than a day after hearing from Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

In what appears to be a first, Judge Brett Kavanaugh took to the media to defend his nomination. Not surprisingly, he chose a friendly venue.

Based on their own rhetoric, it seems clear that Republicans don’t really care what Christine Blasey Ford has to say regarding what happened to her in 1982.

New allegations of sexual misconduct mark the start of a crucial week for the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

Some details still need to be worked out, but it looks as though Dr. Christine Blasey Ford will be testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.

Regardless of who wins control of the Senate in November, the person who will stand third in the line of succession will either be over, or very close to, eighty years old. That doesn’t make sense.

The status of a potential hearing in the Brett Kavanaugh nomination regarding the charges made by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford remain unclear, but the likelihood is that she will testify in the end.

This morning, President Trump took to Twitter to attack Dr. Christine Blasey Ford over her allegations against Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

After a day of political pressure, Senate Republicans have agreed to hold a hearing regarding the sexual assault allegations against Judge Brett Kavanaugh next week.

Some last minute dramatics in the Kavanaugh nomination fight, but it seems unlikely to impact the outcome of the nomination fight.

President Trump has made no secret of the fact that he is displeased with the performance of Jeff Sessions, but he could find it hard to replace him.

Mitch McConnell has a plan that could pose problems for Democrats fighting for re-election.

The nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh is, effectively, assured. Democrats should be careful about how much further they push their opposition.

After four days of hearings, the fate of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court seems assured.

The second day of questioning for Judge Brett Kavanaugh was a bit rockier than the first, but nothing happened that seriously threatens his eventual confirmation.

Washington said farewell to John McCain today in a service that both remembered his spirit and his heroism, and stands as a sharp rebuke to what politics has been reduced to in America today.

The West Virginia Supreme Court has ruled that a candidate who lost the GOP primary for Senate cannot run as the nominee of another party due to the state’s “sore loser” law.

Sad news about a Senate stalwart who has been fighting an aggressive form of cancer for more than a year.

Tom Nichols argues it should. I disagree.

Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination appears to be on track for confirmation before the new Supreme Court term begins in October.

President Trump is suggesting he may force a government shutdown over his immigration policies just a month before the midterm elections.

The Secretary of State of West Virginia has barred Don Blankenship, who came in third place in the GOP Primary, from mounting a third-party bid on the November ballot.

Contrary to last week’s reports, we won’t be seeing a second summit with Vladimir Putin in the near future.

Don Blankenship, who came in third in the Republican Primary in West Virginia earlier this year, is moving forward with plans to run as a third-party candidate in the General Election.